Strong community engagement is essential in building trust, fostering cooperation, and creating lasting partnerships between peace support forces and the local population. By actively engaging communities and responding to their immediate needs, initiatives such as medical outreach programs not only improve access to critical healthcare services by the locals but also demonstrate compassion, solidarity, and commitment to human security.
KDF Troops under the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) recently conducted a community medical outreach in Balcaat village in the outskirts of Kismayo, providing healthcare services to dozens of civilians. The medical outreach saw AUSSOM-KDF medical team attend to tens of patients. While most patients received treatment and were discharged on-site, two cases were referred for further medical management at Kismayo Level One plus hospital.
On the sidelines of the medical outreach, the exercise KDF AUSSOM leaders, conducted a Key Leadership Engagement (KLE) session where they met with the village elders, including the Chief, Abdikadir Abdulle, religious leader Mwalimu Siat, and local elder Abdullahi Hassan. Discussions focused on security cooperation, information sharing, and continued community support through engagement programmes.
Local leaders and villagers expressed appreciation for the medical assistance and encouraged continued humanitarian outreach in neighbouring communities.
The community engagement and medical outreach activity is part of AUSSOM-KDF’s initiatives to strengthen the local community through the provision of vital medical care, directly contributing to the achievement of the AUSSOM mandate.
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